Drugstores and retail shops commonly sell a wide variety of products enclosed in small packages designed to be hung from hooks, including blister or bubble packages of the type which have a transparent front panel through which the product can be seen and a generally flat stiff back member or card as well as opaque packages formed with an apertured extending tab. An aperture through the upper edge portion of the back member or card or through a tab extending from the package permits the packaged products to be displayed on and dispensed from an elongated rod or hook which extends essentially horizontally from a support panel, typically made of pegboard having a multiplicity of equally spaced apertures for securing the rods or hooks in place.
Such displays are attractive to prospective purchasers, who can serve themselves by removing a package from its hook, but they are also attractive to pilferers who can scoop all of the packages off their hook in a single one-handed motion, causing the merchandise to fall undetected into a bag or pocket. Packages can also be accidentally knocked off such open hooks by a person brushing against a display.
Attempts have been made to combat such larceny and accidental displacement of packages from their hooks. For example, Wilkins U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,482 shows a peculiarly shaped dog mounted on a bracket, which is intended to require movement of the dog with one hand to align the dog with a specially shaped aperture in a merchandise card to enable the card to be removed from the bracket by the purchaser's other hand. Niven U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,949 shows a product card holder formed of wire or of flat stock with S-shaped bent portion to impede quick removal of the cards by a thief or vandal. U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,795 to Konigsford et al. employs a bracket formed with a stop-notch and an adjacent protuberance of increased cross-sectional area to prevent packages from sliding readily off the bracket.
The various attempted solutions presented by the prior art have not been completely satisfactory because of manufacturing expense, complexity or aesthetic considerations.
The hook of the present invention is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, attractive in appearance, sturdy and safe.